Friday, December 30, 2005

The Christian calendar does indeed date not from Jesus's birth but from the day of his circumcision.The Jewish calendar dates not from the birth of the world but rather from the creation of Adam.

The word Brit (short for Brit Milah) is pronounced in Yiddish-flavored Hebrew as Bris. In this cartoon I chose to use Brit. Having the terrorist say Bris might have implied to some that he was Jewish. You never know what folks can read into the use of a word. When I titled the cartoon I had the funny thought that since Jan 1st is the anniversary of Jesus's circumcision (or Brit, or Bris...) the proper greeting for Jews is not Happy New Year, but rather a traditional Mazal Tov! (Good Luck!).

Of course that meant that I had to choose between the Yiddishy Mazel Tov and the Israeli Mazal Tov. I chose Mazel which gives, in my mind, a more folksy feel.

The characters in the cartoon are two terrorists. The a-hole on the left with the condom-shaped head originated with the photo of one of the creeps at Munich. The image was burned into my mind and it is one that I often use when depicting Palestinian terrorists. I already showed the photo in a recent posting but I think it needs to be shown more these days, so below is the photo of evil at the Munich Olympics that "inspired" my cartoon character.